Over the last year, self-driving cars have moved from a distant dream to a beckoning reality. Though self-driving tech will be phased in incrementally, this year promises the first wave of automation, with a quarter of global auto sales expected to incorporate self-driving tech by the 2020’s. On the legislative side, four states and the District of Columbia allow self-driving car testing, and the undeclared legal status of self-driving cars in the remaining 46 states seems to hint at the fact that “it’s legal until it’s illegal.” Check out 10 self-driving cars in the works or already on the roads today!

As providers of big ticket items, the health of the auto industry is largely a predictor of the health of the economy as a whole. In the US, 2014 was the second year in a row in which it finally looked like we were out of the recession. Confidence seemed to be high, with U.S. auto inventory stockpiles at their highest levels since 2006, and the industry seems to have successfully adapted past the unfortunate bailouts of a decade before. Cars made today are the most durable they’ve been in over a decade, with an average age of light vehicles improving to 11.4 years in the US. Both American and Chinese auto markets expanded, leading to massive profits for many auto companies. Let’s take a look at the ten most profitable last year.

Behold! They cometh with four and six cylinders, turbochargers and direct injection! Wielding monstrous power-to-weight ratios and fiendish specific output numbers! Inefficient, high-displacement engines flee in their wake, screaming in terror before the advancing army of forced-induction warriors! Read More…

Sure, it’s not really that bad as midlife crises go. I mean, yes, when I hit midlife I did switch jobs three times and got divorced, but that’s more the result of a constant and chronic whole-life crisis, not one of the midlife variety. No, my midlife crisis was automotive. My vehicular partners have all been Japanese and reliable and, literally, colorless (silver, beige, white, black, gray). I had owned my 2003 Mazda Protégé 5 for 10 long years. It was a fun, zippy, practical, economical car that could really do anything. But at 37 something snapped and I decided I needed more elegance, more power, more refinement. Enter the A4. Read More…

Maybe having the classic car of your dreams is enough, whether it’s a good investment or not. You’ve always wanted a 1969 Mustang, Dodge Charger, or 1957 Mercedes 300SL (Gullwing). And if you have the cash to spare, you should have one. But it turns out there’s another more tangible reason to buy a classic car, they’re rapidly appreciating. According to a report by Douglas Ellison and Knight Frank, while traditional collectible investments like watches, art, and coins have appreciated some, (with appreciations of 3%, 5% and 10% in the last 12 months, respectively), collectible cars are stealing the show. Collectible cars have appreciated by 25% in the last 12 months, 111% in the last 5 years, and 469% since 2004. Here are the top ten reasons why classic cars are the best collectible investments.

(Or wherever else you might be stranded)

Let’s suspend our disbelief for a bit about how exactly you end up on a desert island with a car. This is more an exercise in appreciating the mechanical intricacies of our rides. And if you could fashion these things out of your car on a desert island, you could definitely build the following things using your car in other (less isolated) settings. Let’s check out 10 things you can build with your car on a desert island.

Inspired by the space race and radical rocket designs of the time, 1950s automakers dreamt up a series of boundary-pushing “cars of the future.” Today, these prototypes often look amusingly retro-futuristic, like something out of classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Jetsons or original ’60s sci-fi hit Star Trek. At the time, though, they were sleek, cutting-edge and ultra-modern.

These concept cars were sometimes presented as atomic energy-powered, engineless prototypes for, despite the now-obvious dangers, this was how designers envisaged the future of motoring. In some cases their creations featured designs and technologies subsequently taken for granted – mostly, though, these fascinating prototypes represent a mid-20th century, sci-fi-inspired view of a future that never materialized.

Here’s a gem we should have never forgotten. In the year 1900, Jean-Marc Côté and a collection of other French artists created a series of postcards for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. The subject of the postcards: France in the year 2000. The idea caught on and Russian and German prints were released in the years that followed. The result, a number of incredibly awesome new modes of transportation. The world would be so much cooler if this is how we got around.

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